[OKC] From Slate: Plastic by Any Other Name

[Miles, Karen]

Plastic by Any Other Name


Coke and Pepsi's plant-based bottles still damage the environment.

By Amy Westervelt 
First came the press releases: In March, PepsiCo touted the "World's
First 100 Percent Plant-Based, Renewably Sourced PET Bottle
<http://www.pepsico.com/PressRelease/PepsiCo-Develops-Worlds-First-100-P
ercent-Plant-Based-Renewably-Sourced-PET-Bott03152011.html> ," prompting
CocaCola to stammer, "Odwalla
<http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/dynamic/press_center/2011/04/odwalla
-announces-plantbottle-packaging.html>  First to Market with up to 100
Percent PlantBottle(tm) Packaging
." The subsequent headlines bumped the hype up a notch: "Pepsi bottles:
no more plastic
<http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2011/0315/Pepsi-bot
tles-no-more-plastic> " (Christian Science Monitor), "Pepsi Ups Ante on
Plant-Based Bottles with 100% Non-Plastic Bottle
<http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2011/03/15/pepsi-ups-ante-plant-based-bott
les-100-percent-non-plastic-bottle> " (GreenBiz), "Coca Cola-designing
bottles from recycled plastic and plant by-product
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/coca-cola-renewable-bott
le> " (Guardian). Last month, Coca-Cola released a commercial for its
Dasani-brand bottled water arguing that its partly plant-based packaging
is "designed to make a difference": 
 
But despite all the buzz, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo's plant-based bottles
are still very much plastic.  The companies have merely replaced the
fossil fuels (petroleum and natural gas) traditionally used to make
their plastic bottles with ethanol from renewable sources (plant waste
in Pepsi's case and Brazilian sugar cane in Coke's). Though these
initial inputs come from renewable, lower-carbon sources, the resulting
plastics are chemically identical to the polyethylene terepthalate, or
PET, and high-density polyethylene, or HDPE, that regular plastic
bottles are made of-a fact the companies acknowledge
<http://myplasticfreelife.com/2011/04/the-truth-about-pepsis-new-plant-b
ased-pet-plastic-bottle/> . And once the inputs become plastic, they
carry all the same environmental impacts as plastic made from fossil
fuels: They don't biodegrade, they pollute the world's oceans and soils,
and still leach potentially harmful chemicals into our food.  
 
"They're just using plants to make the same polymers you find in other
plastics. It has zero effect on plastic pollution," says Marcus Eriksen,
a marine expert who co-founded the nonprofit 5 Gyres
<http://5gyres.org/>  a few years ago to study ocean plasticization in
areas like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch> .  
 
Eriksen and his crew just finished exploring the world's five major
oceanic gyres (slow-moving currents that create massive whirlpools where
plastic can accumulate). They've found "plastic soup"-water thick with
tiny bits of plastic-in all five. Eriksen's team and other researchers
have also found larger chunks of plastic on the various islands
scattered throughout the gyres, and in the bellies of dead birds
<http://www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/midway/#CF000313%2018x24> , fish,
and animals who fill themselves up with plastic bits that they mistake
for fish and eventually die because they can't digest the stuff
<http://www.plasticfreetimes.com/gyres-and-marine-life> . 
 
Likewise, plastic-plant-based or otherwise-harms human health. The
dangers of chemical additives commonly used in plastic, such as
pthalates and bisphenol A, have been widely publicized
<http://www.plasticfreetimes.com/plastics-and-human-health> ; the two
have been linked to obesity, autism, and various forms of cancer. 
 
"Some bioplastics formulations use the same types of additives as
petroleum or natural gas-based plastics," acknowledges Melissa Hockstad,
a vice president at SPI <http://www.plasticsindustry.org/> , a trade
association for the industry. In other words, plant plastics are not
necessarily free of BPA and pthalates. There's no way to know whether a
particular plant-based plastic bottle includes these chemicals, since
all plastic "recipes" are protected as trade secrets. But since
traditional PET and HDPE manufacturers tend to use them to produce the
right level of pliability and clarity, there's a very good chance that
plant-based versions of PET and HDPE contain them, too. Hockstad says
"some companies have been working on the development of bio-based"
alternatives. But the key phrase is "working on the development of," as
in, those additives don't exist yet and may never. 
 
That said, there's a kernel of real progress amid the plant-plastic
hype. The new bottles reduce the use of fossil fuels and improve
recyclability. But there's a big difference between "recyclable" and
"recycled." While all bioplastics are technically "recyclable," current
recycling systems are not set up to recycle those that don't mimic
existing plastics. The most common bioplastics include polylactic acid,
which is made from corn starch, tapioca, or sugar cane. When these
bioplastics arrive at a recycling center, they are separated out as
waste. 
 
In this sense, Coke and Pepsi opting to create plant-based HDPE and PET
instead of other bioplastics is applaudable. Unfortunately, people still
recycle only a small fraction of the plastic bottles they use,
regardless of how those bottles are made. (Manufacturers typically put
the recycling rate for PET at 27 percent, while recycling advocates
suggest it's more like 21 percent.) Most plant-based bottles, sadly,
will end up in landfills or along the side of the road. 
 
As such, it's crucial not to misread plant-based as biodegradable. "As a
recycler, I'm much happier with the bioresins that we're able to
recycle, but I don't want it to turn into something where people think
because they're buying a plant bottle, they can be wasteful," says Gerry
Fishbeck, vice president of the United Resource Recovery Corp.
<http://www.urrc.net/new/pages/> , a large recycling company that has a
partnership with Coca-Cola. 
 
Article continues at: http://www.slate.com/id/2296858/pagenum/all/#p2
 
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